Folding chair



July 9, 1940. w. E. CLARIN 2,207,338

FOLDING CHAIR Filed Oct. 25, 1957 IN VEN'TOR.

ATTORNEYJ.

Patented July 9, 1940 FOLDING CHAIR Werner E. Clarin, Muncie, Ind., assignor to Durham' Manufacturing Company,

Muncie,

Ind., a corporation of Indiana Application October 23, 1937, Serial No. 170,514

4 Claims.

The present application relates to a folding chair, and more particularly to folding chairs of the type in which the seat member is pivoted upon a horizontal axis intermediate the front and rear edges of the seat member. The primary object of the invention is to provide automatically operating means for locking the seat member in seating position, to prevent accidental collapse of the chair. I

Further objects of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the above and related objects, my invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawing, attention being called to the fact, however, that the drawing is illustrative only, and that change may be made in the specific construction illustrated and described, so long as the scope of the appended claims is not violated.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a chair constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmental elevation of the essentialdetails of the present invention, the parts being shown in a partially collapsed condition; and

Fig. 3 is a fragmental horizontal section taken substantially on the plane indicated by the line 3-3 of Fig. l, and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Folding chairs of the type in which the seat member is pivoted upon ahorizontal axis intermediate the front and rear edges thereof are subject to the decided disadvantage that, if weight is applied to the seat member at a point behind the axis of said seat member, there is grave danger of collapse of the chair, resulting from turning of the seat member about its axis, thereby pulling the legs together; and often resulting in serious injury to the user. In spite of the fact that chairs are intended only to provide seats, while stepladders are intended for use where a person desires to reach an elevated object, people insist upon standing on chairs, on many occasions, in order to save themselves the trouble of going for a stepladder. On numerous occasions, people have stepped onto folding chairs of the general type of that here under consideration, have thoughtlessly applied their weight primarily, if not solely, to the portion of the seat behind the pivotal axis of the seat, and have thereby caused the collapse of the chair, whereby they have been thrown to the floor, at least one leg being caught Within the chair structure; and bone fractures and other serious injuries have resulted.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a chair of the-type here under consideration in which there is incorporated means for the illustrated side will be described. In said illustrations, I have shown a front leg It which may be formed of rod or tube stock bent to the shape of an inverted U, the loop at the top supporting a back rest element ll. Intermediate the ends of the legs it) there are secured brackets ii! to which are hinged or pivoted legs l3, through the medium of pivot pins'l l.

The seat member l 5 is pivotally mounted, upon a rod I6, between the legs Ii]; the rod 86 being positioned intermediate the front and rear edges of the seat member l 5, and passing through angle irons ll secured to the opposite side edges of the seat member.

A link I8 is pivoted, as at I9, to one of the legs l3; and it will be understood that, whereas I consider it to be highly desirable to provide links IS on both sides of the chair, a construction in which only one link [8 is used is within the spirit of my invention.

The opposite end of the link i8 is provided with a slot elongated in the direction of the long dimension of said link; and said slot receives a pin 2! projecting laterally from the member I1.

A second slot 22 opens through the lower edge 23 of the link l8, and is formed with an extension 24 projecting longitudinally of the link It away from the pivot l9. A second pin 25, spaced rearwardly from the pin 2|, projects laterally from the member l1.

It will be seen that the legs l0 and I3 are so related that they may assume a position of substantial parallelism, or any one of a plurality of positions of relative angularity. As the legs l3 are swung outwardly away from the legs I!) and out of a position of parallelism, the link [8 will operate to swing the seat member 15 from a position of substantial parallelism with the legs 10 toward the seating position illustrated in Fig. 1. As the elements approach the position of Fig. l, the pin 25 will enter the slot 22, and will strike the upper wall of said slot to arrest further movement of the seat member l5 about its axis I6. In this position of angularity of the legs I0 and I3, the chair corresponds closely to former folding chair constructions of the type here under consideration. Because of the provision of the elongated slot 20, however, it will be seen that it is possible to move the legs 3 to a position of greater angularity with respect to the legs i 0. During such movement to the maximum degree of angularity, the link 18 is moved rearwardly with respect to the seat member 15, whereby the pin 2! is caused to assume the relative position of Fig. 1, and the pin 25 is caused to enter the extension 24 of the slot 22. Thus, the parts assume the positions illustrated in Fig. 1.

When the parts are positioned as illustrated in Fig. 1, the engagement of the pin 25 with the upper wall of the slot extension 24 prevents further clockwise movement of the seat member [5 about its axis l6; while the engagement of the pin 25 with the shoulder 26 prevents counterclockwise movement of the seat member l5 about its axis I6. No degree of force, less than that degree required to cause breakage, applied to the seat member IS in any direction can cause movement of the said seat member about its axis 16.

The lock provided by the described organization cannot be released except by preliminary movement of the legs l3 toward the legs ID. Any force applied to the chair in a downward direction tends to spread the legs l3 away from the legs l0, rather than to cause the legs l3 to approach the legs H1.

The chair cannot be moved again to folded position except by applying force in a substantially horizontal direction to move the legs l3 toward the legs ID to shift the extension 24 away from pin 25.

I claim as my invention:

1. A folding chair comprising two pairs of legs hinged together adjacent their upper ends, a seat member pivotally mounted between one pair of legs on an axis intermediate the front and rear edges of said seat member, a link pivoted to one of the other pair of legs and having a lost-motion pivotal connection with said seat member, and cooperating means on said link and on said seat member operable, in one position of said link with respect to said seat member, to hold said seat member against movement about its pivotal axis.

2. A folding chair, comprising a pair of front legs, a pair of rear legs pivoted, at their upper ends, to said front legs, a seat member pivotally mounted between said front legs on an axis intermediate the front and rear edges of said seat member, a link pivoted at one end upon one of said rear legs and having a pin-and-slot connection with said seat, said link being formed with a further slot, and a pin on said seat member engageable, at times, in said last-mentioned slot to hold said seat member against movement about its pivotal axis.

3. A folding chair, comprising a pair of front legs, a pair of rear legs pivoted, at their upper ends, to said front legs, a seat member pivotally mounted between said front legs on an axis intermediate the front and rear edges of said seat member, a link pivoted at one end upon one of said rear legs and. having a pin-and-slot connection with said-seat at a point between the pivotal axis of said seat and the rear edge thereof, said link being formed with a further slot, said last-mentioned slot opening through the lower edge of said link and being provided with an angularly related extension projecting away from said first-mentioned end of said link, and

a pin on said seat member enterable in said lastmentioned slot, and shiftable, upon continued extending movement of said rear legs, into the extension thereof.

4. A folding chair, comprising a pair of front legs, a pair of rear legs pivoted, at their upper edge of said link and being provided with an angularly related extension projecting away from said first-mentionedend of said link, and a pin on said seat member automatically movable, as said rear legs and front legs are swung to open the chair, into said slot and subsequently into the extension thereof.

WERNER E. CLARIN. 

